Can 'Positive Deviance' improved learning in developing countries?

2019 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19F19309
• Research Institution: International Christian University
• Principal Investigator: 笹岡 幹子 (西村幹子) 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 教授 (20432552)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ATUHURRA JULIUS 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 外国人特別研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2019-11-08 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: Positive Deviance / learning / Uganda / intervention design / baseline survey

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

This research study commenced in October-November 2019 with the successful conduct of a paper-based baseline survey covering 150 school communities from six districts in Busoga sub-region. Since then, three key research achievements have been registered.
First, all baseline survey responses from 150 head teachers, 598 teachers, 150 local leaders, 4,076 household heads and 17,757 children, have been entered into an electronic dataset. The data has been strongly validated by key stakeholders from the relevant districts including teachers, head teachers and district education officials. This data has also been used to conduct a well-balanced stratified computer-based random assignment of the 150 school communities into two groups, treatment and comparison.
Second, the research study has been reviewed and permits obtained from all the relevant institutional review boards in Uganda and Japan. Furthermore, a detailed design of the intervention has been developed and validated.
Third, onboarding and training of all key implementation parties has been completed and research materials delivered. Onboarding, engagement and training sessions were held from early to mid-March 2020 involving not only the district-level implementation teams and other education sector players at the district, but also the school leadership teams from ten pilot schools.

Current Status of Research Progress

3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.

Reason

This research has fallen a bit behind the schedule mainly because of one key reason; school closures due to the potentially high risk of transmission of COVID19 through education institutions. Because of the closure of schools in mid- March, the pilot activities were cut short midway after we concluded the training, engagement and onboarding sessions. With schools still closed and no clear indication of when they might re-open, it is quite difficult to determine how much more delay will be incurred before getting back on course with the intervention.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

If schools reopen by June 2020, the remaining part of the pilot activities will be completed. The intervention will then be rolled out to all treatment schools at the start of the second school term in July. On the other hand, if schools do not reopen until July 2020, then the possibility of continuing with the pilot in the ten pilot schools while at the same time rolling out the intervention in the other treatment schools will be considered and appropriate decisions/actions taken.
The JSPS fellow will continue with baseline data analysis and sharing of findings at academic seminars within Japan and submit the first journal article by December 2020.
A midline survey will be conducted by March 2021 to establish the early impacts of the intervention.